Business & Tech
PHOTOS: Richfield Best Buy, Target Midnight Openings Draw Crowds
With the Richfield Target and Best Buy opening at midnight for Black Friday, local residents line up to get the first crack at the deals.
was bustling with activity Thursday night as "Harry Potter" played on a big screen in the parking lot and free hot beverages were served up for the hundreds of customers who were standing in line waiting for .
Herme Garcia and his family were first in line. According to Garcia, he and his family got their spot at 8 p.m. Wednesday and were planning on getting a 42-inch LCD television once they got in the doors.
Estimates from Best Buy event staff put the crowd at about 425 people around 10 p.m. Thursday but that number was on the rise fast as people kept coming into the parking lot, forcing the line of people to wind around the back of the store and down 77th Street to the west.
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On the other side of town, store had lines, but not at the same level of activity that Best Buy had. At the head of the line at was Kenny Stevens, a Minneapolis metro area resident, who had lined up earlier Thursday to get a deal on a gift for his daughter.
According to , 30 customers every 15 seconds would be let in to avoid too many customers through the doors at once. By 11 p.m. the end of the line made its way across the entire storefront—almost to —with many more people entering the parking lot to grab their place in line as well.